Georgian Mansion

This extraordinary project is still ongoing, with a budget running into six figures it is ambitious, technically challenging, and an experience for all those involved...

Bought by a Midland businessman some 8 years ago, the property was extremely run-down, and had suffered many years of botched rebuilds, together with the ravages of damp. The walls were in many places dangerously unstable, and the interior unsafe. The house is now held together with a mass of huge steel girders, which support most of the internal structure. The outside walls have all been coated with specialist renders and all exterior walls lined on the inside with the same steel framing technique used in the Shropshire Farmhouse. Due to the high security nature of the property, we can't show photos of the finished product, but the following examples give an idea of the nature and scale of the project.

Peter was responsible for a good deal of the interior carpentry, kitchen fitting, and stonework. Parapets and gables are clad in specially made Portland Stone slabs. All the window sills were replaced with Portland stone from the same quarry.

The staircase below was made in Italy, and fitted, step by step, by Peter and a specialist team. It is cantilevered against the top slab - a massive piece of concrete cast in place, and at the bottom by a thick wall of engineering brick on top of thick concrete. The client supplied the bronze balustrades. The floor of the hallway (covered in these photos) is a magnificent swathe of polished marble incorporating the client's coat of arms.

The finishing carpentry took months of work. All the skirtings and architraves were moulded - in some cases in several pieces which were joined together on site, and later painted. In the photos below, skirtings run down the side of steps - they are moulded to fit exactly around the step - this was a practise run in preparation for doing the same job on the main staircase. The second photo shows deep skirtings (approx. 11") fitted to plinth blocks at the base of architrave around a door.

In these shots, doors give access to guest suites - these were made to our design, along with all the skirtings and architraves. An idea of the finished appearance can be seen in the Shropshire Farmhouse, which uses similar materials and is designed around the same lines.. The second photo shows one of the marble fireplaces, and a glimpse into the hallway beyond.

The plaster cornices in this house are extraordinarily detailed - this is a simple example - the photo taken as the cornice was being fitted, and before the corners were sculpted.

It's Condensation Season!

The Haynes Manual for Period Property

Ian Rock has written another of his great books. This one is even better - We've helped Ian with this one and there's loads of photos of our guys doing timber frame work. A great book, with lots of practical information you need if you have an old home. Treat yourself and buy this - you won't regret it!

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About Us

The Heritage House brand was Petes brainchild. He lives in a beautiful old farmhouse in Shropshire with mad horse - Lucy. He's worked all over the world on old buildings, and with a strong background in geochemistry is passionate about ensuring the 'Rising Damp' myth is firmly buried. His Partner, Richard handles work in London. Pete has an all consuming project to re-open a Victorian lead mine in the Northern Pennines - digging out and exploring miles of abandoned tunnels in the search for crystal lined cavities... The shaft they've dug is currently 250 feet deep! Just before Christmas, Pete broke into the first of the crystal filled workings and is cleaning and preparing beautiful crystal specimens of fluorite.

The website is owned by Campylite Investments Ltd (campylite). Pete and the crew are consultants to campylite and sister company, Heritage Consulting Ltd.

Disclaimer

Note! The opinions expressed on this website are often Pete's. They are frequently strong, unambiguous, and based on extensive experience of what goes on out there. Pete does not like to see the buying public being conned, defrauded, duped, sold a lemon, given bad or misleading advice, or crap surveys using equipment that is unsuited for the job. If you don't like what is written here - don't threaten us - clean your act up.